The f-lite 311 will be breaking new ground for Inov8 next month. When I use them at Iromman Barcelona. Although the super fast F-lite 230 have been my choice for the last 2years when taking to the road and light trails in triathlons. This road marathon event requires a little more support and cushioning. Plus, with the heal loops and fast pull lacing, they really make an ideal long distance triathlon shoe.
Looking forward to putting Inov8 on the Ironman map.....
Macca
Sunday, 5 September 2010
F-Lite First
Friday, 3 September 2010
Cycling Time Trial - Owain Llyr James
It was the last of the cycling time trials on Tuesday 31 August. At only 3.8 miles, it's one of the smallest that is arranged by Clwb Rasio Mona on Anglesey. There are no prizes on offer, just individual competition against friendly club riders based in North West Wales.
The end of a sunny day on the island saw 30 riders compete for honors. A personal best for this course, saw me return to the finish line in 10.01 min, and placed 13th overall.
Results are here, and photos of the time trial can be seen on sportpicturescymru website.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Salford Quays Aquathlon - Owain Llyr James
I travelled to Salford recently in order to take part in the last Salford Aquathlon race. I celebrated my junior series win by competing against the seniors.
The race included an 800m open water swim, and a 5kM 4 lap run.
I was out of the water in 4th place, and a quick transition saw me start my 5kM measured course.
I finished my 5kM run in 4th place with a run time of 17:06, and an overall time of 28:40.
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Pete's 2010 so far
2010 so far: Marathons, Orienteering, Intelligent sport (TM), Bob Graham support and Emigration
2010 has been a really interesting year so far, and I'm sure there's more to come. Trail marathons, orienteering, Intelligent Sport, Bob Graham support, and (last but not least) a move to Toulouse "en famille" for two years.
First I ran in my first two marathon distance events: two second places in very picturesque Endurancelife Coastal Marathons. My wife Jue meanwhile nailed 7 of them in 7 months for her "7x7" Endurancelife t-shirt.
I haven't orienteered regularly for almost 20 years now, but started doing some events these last few years as it's such a great family sport. Most have been small local events, but this year it seemed rude not to take in the orienteering JK Festival at Easter and national championships, with both being so close to home (the first in the south-west and second on Cannock Chase). Being first back on first leg in the "120 years" JK relay was a real buzz. Then I got another second (in age category) at the nationals, after being pipped to the post by a New Zealand resident, one of my old contemporaries Bill Edwards.
The Harvester orienteering night relay wasn't so close to home, but I made the trip down to Kent from my Mum's as she and my step-Dad Tony kindly looked after the kids for the weekend. It would have been yet another second place - this time for my club (Bristol OK) - if I hadn't mis punched at one control. I know that I stuck my SI dibber in the box at the correct control..but didn't hold it there long enough, or check that the box had flashed and beeped. My first mistake with electronic punching (do correct me if my memory is being selective). Really not great to make it on a relay where I blow out the whole team. But lesson learned.
Then there was the UK Challenger Trophy with Team Airbus. This year I joined the "Performance" all male team with my old friends Martin "Rabbit" Warren as captain, and Jon "Forrest" Price along with new guys "Max Power" and Chris, now known as Simon (sorry Chris!). Our performance in the main event wasn't at the level Airbus usually achieves i.e. we didn't win outright. However, we delivered where it mattered most in the Channel 4 televised Grand Prix stage, smashing the opposition with an outstanding team performance. We out ran the other teams, and nailed every single "Brain Cell" challenge, including the near impossible super pressurised finishing line challenge. See the action for yourself on www.dreamteamtelevision.co.uk under Streaming/Intelligent Sport.
The big project in 2009 was to run a joint Bob Graham round with my wife Jue. In the end illness and injury, and events beyond our control resulted in a bold attempt with inadequate preparation. We got to Honister (going clockwise), but it wasn't quite on. This year I decided to support Jue for a joint BG attempt with our friend Eddie Winthorpe. On the Tuesday before the attempt was due I found out that I had managed to land a two year secondment to Toulouse. Starting at the beginning of September. Due to this rather ambitious time frame combined with a fairly rubbish weather forecast, Jue made the right (but tough) decision to give it a miss. But with Eddie in unstoppable go for it mode, I headed up to the Lakes to support his attempt.
Despite heavy rain and strong winds over most of the day, Eddie was running ahead of schedule for much of the time. Unfortunately he had suffered a sprained ankle on the descent from Hall's fell in wet and gusty conditions (he was knocked off his feet!) and over the hours of running this started to catch up with him. Chris Gazeley and Trudy did an awesome support job, and Eddie was lucky to be able to tap into Chris' Osteomyologist skills. Never heard of them? Well, seeing as Eddie was scarcely able to get himself down to the road crossings fro Dunmail onwards, but after a 10 minute treatment at each one he had a couple of hours running without any problems, I would judge Chris' effectiveness as extremely high.
With this and the support runners (many thanks to Jim, Rod, Kate and Daniel) Eddie made it off Robinson (the last mountain) with enough time to jog to Keswick. But even with excellent treatment his problems had finally caught up with him and he could barely walk, and called it a day. Next time Eddie - you can make it with hours to spare in okay conditions and no injury!
But the really big project for 2010 has to be our move to Toulouse for two years. We have been looking at spending some time in France for quite a while (Jue has done almost two years of French evening classes) but this secondment was a bit of a long shot, so when we finally got the green light on 6th July, we didn't have much time left to get to France for the start of school term at the beginning of September. Moving house, selling car, finding new schools, and moving countries is still work in progress, but I am writing this from a hotel in Tournefeuille, a few hundred metres from our rented home to be. On Wednesday the kids will start school, and about then our furniture should catch up with us soon. So once we get over all the intial hurdles we're looking forward to some mountain racing (French style) and come winter some skiing in the Pyrenees, which are now only two or three hours drive away.
Watch this space..
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
4th and 6th place at World Orienteering Championships, 2010 (Norway)
(Photo: Scott Fraser, Graham Gristwood, Jon Duncan)
The World Orienteering Champs were recently held in the marshes of Trondheim (Norway) and I came away with a personal best in the Long (6th place) and the Relay (4th place). However, in the sprint I was running for an 8th place but after running right past a control near the end I ended up disqualified.
In the relay we were 7 seconds off a medal in a very close fought battle along with Graham Gristwood (1st leg) and Jon Duncan (2nd leg), who ran superbly to set me off on last leg in the lead pack.
We'll be looking for revenge in 2011!
Monday, 23 August 2010
The Terrex looms large....
This weekend sees the big adventure race of the year - the Terrex. Starting with a prologue on thursday evening the race proper then kicks off 'very early' on friday morning according to James Thurlow, the organiser. This is proper expedition racing - 4 days non-stop, with a good field of the UK's active adventure racing teams. Other big races in Europe and further afield have meant that the Irish teams are the most international enties, but hopefully that won't diminish the standard of the racing.
Inov-8 is well represented with the main team who have posted their own blog, but also Chris Near and I are racing as half of the Team planetFear.com. It's been a bit of a last minute scrabble as we were forced into looking for a new lady for the team only a few weeks ago, and with such short notice and such a long race, coupled with the fact that most other established racers are already competing, made for quite a hunt. No stone was left unturned and we evenually found Sally Ozanne hiding underneath one!
Sally brings a good background in endurance, paddling, biking and running and climbing to the team, and she happens to be an instructor at Plas y Brenin too! She's very much our new secret weapon, and we're ready to surprise the other teams..... . Everyone says she's very cheerful and very hard too. We're all certainly going to need to be both of those to win this race.
Follow both team's progress over the weekend at
http://www.adidas-ar.com/newsite/index.php
See you on the other side.....
Saturday, 21 August 2010
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